Nicholas Wade of the New York Times explains why humans have (mostly) less hair than their evolutionary ancestors.
Some of us are genetic throwbacks when it comes to body hair. Part of me thinks that it’s not so much a loss of gradual loss of hair as it was human ingenuity when it came to finding ways to shave, wax, or laser that shit off. Show me a monkey fashioning a Mach 3 out of a rock and twigs and I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong.
TMZ has a timely gallery of dead wrestlers; a lot of whom I didn’t realize had passed on like Ravishing Rick Rude.
As could be expected with living the fast life of a professional wrestler, there were a lot of overdoses and heart attacks. The exception was Dino Bravo who was gunned down in a gangland-style hit.
The 10 ugliest bridesmaid dresses according to People Magazine. I find it hard to disagree.
Liberal MP Irwin Cotler gets it.
AfriGadget is an awesome blog showcasing African ingenuity.
From the article about the homemade welding machine.
Simon, the shop owner, showed me a couple of the machines and gave a video tour of how it works. He’s a prime example how an entrepreneur in Africa will figure out ingenious solutions to meet local market demands. The welders sell for around 14,000 Kenya Shillings (just over $200), but fabrication costs only a small fraction of that.
Lawrence Lessig is shifting his academic focus. From lessig.org
I have decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues: Namely, these. “Corruption” as I’ve defined it elsewhere will be the focus of my work. For at least the next 10 years, it is the problem I will try to help solve.I do this with no illusions. I am 99.9% confident that the problem I turn to will continue exist when this 10 year term is over. But the certainty of failure is sometimes a reason to try. That’s true in this case.
Nor do I believe I have any magic bullet. Indeed, I am beginner. A significant chunk of the next ten years will be spent reading and studying the work of others. My hope is to build upon their work; I don’t pretend to come with a revolution pre-baked.
Instead, what I come with is a desire to devote as much energy to these issues of “corruption” as I’ve devoted to the issues of network and IP sanity. This is a shift not to an easier project, but a different project. It is a decision to give up my work in a place some consider me an expert to begin work in a place where I am nothing more than a beginner.
The Angry Aussie blog on the side-effects of a new diet pill. It ain’t pretty.
I’m not too big on communism but the East German aesthetic can’t be beat. Ostel Hotel in Berlin replicates it fantastically.
The four clocks behind the reception desk of Berlin’s new budget hotel Ostel show the hour in Moscow, Berlin, Havana, and Beijing. Time, however, appears to have stopped here sometime before 1989, when communism was still entrenched in all four capitals.
The Ostel offers a renewed whiff of life in the former German Democratic Republic, welcoming travelers with portraits of communist leaders adorning the walls.
Furnishings — except for mattresses, bed linens, sink and toilets — are the real thing, dug up by founders Daniel Helbig and Guido Sand from flea markets, friends, family and eBay.
Ted Nugent doesn’t like Paul McCartney. Now eat a steak!
The trailer for National Lampoon’s “72 Virgins“. Just a trailer so far though.
As silly and potentially offensive as that trailer is, it’s still hard to measure up to the high-water mark of this genre set by “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle”. That movie is fantastic!
New York Times slide show of game players and their online alter-egos. Some accurate. Some frightening.
I took the quiz “What American accent do you have?” and came surprisingly as Canadian. Surprising not because I’m actually Canadian but rather that a stupid fucking online quiz could get the right answer.
How anyone convinced The Smiths let alone Morrissey to appear on the children’s television show “Charlie’s Bus” is beyond me. Nonetheless, watch one of the more surreal moments in pop-culture history.
Little kid: “Where are we going?”
Morrissey: “We’re all going mad”
Brilliant!
Scary gallery of self-made weapons. I don’t even know what some of them are but know that I wouldn’t want to get in the way of them.
How dirty words got that way. From Slate.
A federal appeals panel on Monday said the FCC could no longer slap indecency fines on broadcasters who accidentally allowed the word fuck on the airwaves, arguing that these days the word fuck is commonly used to express frustration rather than sexual obscenity. How did fuck and other words get so dirty anyway?
Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati wants us to stop helping out. I guess Bono might have to start singing for his band full-time again.
From Spiegel Online:
SPIEGEL:Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…
Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.
SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.
Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.
Seriously. Someone please get me this.
From MEMRI TV: The Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony at the Islamic Association in Gaza on Hamas TV.
Cultural relativism aside, shouldn’t these kids be outside or playing Nintendo or something? Leave the declarations of Jihad against the Israelis and the aspirations for a martyr’s death for the adults.
